Armie Hammer Dancing Is the Only Good Thing, So Let’s Hold Onto It For a While

Y’all, it is ROUGH out there. If it’s not North Korea, it’s sexual predators; if it’s not 80 degrees and humid in New York City in October, it’s a “super-volcano” in Wyoming that might erupt in our lifetimes; it’s death, disaster, and depression everywhere you turn. So when we get a moment like Armie Hammer dancing like nobody’s watching in a sneak preview scene of the phenomenal upcoming film Call Me By Your Name, we need to grab onto it with both hands.

The clip was released by Sony Pictures Classics yesterday, as a gift for National Coming Out Day. Just on its own, it is a wonderful, joyful little interlude, watching one of the most handsome movie stars in the business dance with abandon to the Psychadelic Furs. Within the context of Call Me By Your Name (which has screened at the Sundance, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals and opens in the States on November 24th), it’s almost heart-stopping, watching Oliver (Hammer) dance with abandon while observed by Elio (Timothée Chalamet), who is increasingly attracted to him. And who wouldn’t be? Especially when the scene is filmed with so much care. Like the way Elio won’t allow himself to look at Oliver once he enters the dance floor. Or how director Luca Guadagnino makes the audience think for a second that Elio is lunging for Oliver only to have him dance with a girl. Or the way that Oliver’s star of David necklace (a recurring totem in the film) bounces freely out from underneath his shirt.

Also, though, it’s just wonderful to see a tall adonis dance with this much goofy abandon. It’s infectious. Guadagnino knows it. In last year’s A Bigger Splash, he got Ralph Fiennes dancing…

…and Tilda Swinton singing karaoke.

It’s only been a day on the internet, but already it’s clear that Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name is this year’s Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina. Already, the meme-ification has begun. The Twitter account @ArmieDancingTo has embarked upon a mission to set Hammer’s blissful hopping around to as many pop songs as possible. A few favorites: